The National Centre of Ceramics Studies, Wales and the Ken Stradling Collection
A Collaboration Between the National Centre for Ceramics, Studies and the Ken Stradling Collection With thanks to: Ken Stradling Oliver Kent Chris Yeo Julia Donnely Peter Castle Duncan Ayscough Claire Curneen Natasha Mayo
…not forgetting our wonderful graduate: Chloe Monks who introduced us to the collection through her research for the Crafts Council’s ‘Ten Years On’
Documented by photographer Toril Brancher
The Art of Re-Interpretation Creativity is etched into the floor, walls and objects of 48 Park Row. Whilst the presence of any original occupants may have long since been removed by the buildings reconstruction after bombing during the second world war, its link to domesticity remains offering an enriched context for interpretation of its collection. At first, the odd angles of the interior suggest a limitation of scale and remit; a narrow stair leads you to an intimate room with a fireplace and window, but as with similar ‘domestic’ venues namely, Kettles Yard - Cambridge, High Cross House - Devon and Blackwell Arts and Craft House Lake District, there is no tethering to function and history. The preservation of the buildings former life as a private house through interior detail is what makes the collection such an intriguing proposition, offering a unique contextual
frame for a diverse range of objects, paintings, sculpture and furniture. Previously distant objects are bought within reach, not only physically through trustees encouragement for visitors to handle artifacts but more poignantly, by prompting them to imagine a Lucie Rie or Hans Coper as if within their own home, a Marcel Breuer chair next to their favorite window, a Gillian Lowndes sculpture leaning against their own fireplace. It is this sense of ‘home’ that becomes implicit in any encounter with the Ken Stradling Collection, causing the building and artifacts within it to accrue a ‘living history' an unavoidable projection of self onto the artifacts creating a powerful overlap between art and life, denied by most other galleries and museums.
It was the potential dialogues offered by this familiar context that drew the National Centre of Ceramic Studies, Wales into working with the collection. The collection offers a creative catalyst to inspire a breadth of creative endevour essential for a program encompassing perspectives of craft, design, fine art to installation, figuration and illustration each united by the medium of clay. Students visited three times with the following rationale: to generate work that extends, alters or incorporates the narratives contained in either the artifacts or architecture of the collection. The first visit, was to identify a catalyst object or site that could be responded to or reacted against. The second, was for 1:1 tutorials to discuss idea development with the collections trustee Oliver Kent and Ken Stradling himself.
The third, was for students to bring their ceramic practice and place it within the collection to review ways in which their emergent aesthetics might contribute further dialogue. This final stage was documented by the photographer Toril Brancher, herself a master of composing and (re)framing objects. This catalogue sets out the findings of the CSAD Ceramics collaboration with the Ken Stradling collection, Bristol. This document; rich with Torils imagery, will serve as a Blue-Print of ways in which students might use historic and contemporary collections as future creative catalyst. Dr. Natasha Mayo Subject Lead Ceramics National Centre for Ceramics, Wales
THE KEN STRADLING COLLECTION The Ken Stradling Collection is a detailed reflection of one man’s engagement with design as a buyer and retailer and as a patron and collector from the immediate post-war years to the present day. It is unique in its breadth of objects and media, a reflection of a retail environment but also of the changing role of design in the home. “I’m interested in design generally, whether it’s pottery, glass, industrial design or craft and so on, it’s all design to me and that’s why I can go from one to the other.” It is central to Ken’s intention in making his collection public that it can act as a catalyst for developing the interest and understanding of others. Working with the second year BA Ceramics students from Cardiff School of Art has given him great pleasure. Ken Stradling has been actively involved in the changing
world of design and domestic taste as buyer, manager and director of Bristol Guild of Applied Art in Park Street since 1948. His collection of 20th and 21st century design began as an incidental pleasure of the professional and cultural environment in which he found himself, and of the buying choices he was making for the shop. Ken says that, though sensitive to changing fashions, he has always been driven by his own interpretation of good design and quality. The Collection is not a formal account of changing fashion or taste, nor a history of the Guild, but a personal, sometimes playful view of the world. At Bristol Grammar School in the 1930s, Ken developed an interest in the arts through the influence of its headmaster, J. E. Barton who wrote and broadcast on modern art and design and was passionate about the value of art and design education.
In 1948 he found employment as Assistant Manager at the Bristol Guild of Applied Art. It had originated in 1908 as a collective of artists but by 1929 had become a retail shop. Stradling imposed a strong identity of his own, finding, buying and selling new and innovative work. While the 1951 Festival of Britain set out a dynamic modern agenda for architecture and design, economic recovery took time. Ken was able to travel, taking a particular interest in Scandinavian design with a particular interest in glass. The Guild’s range expanded steadily taking in areas such as furniture, textiles, glass, jewellery, ceramics, kitchenware and toys as well as a gallery space to experiment and engage audiences with new work. From 1958 Ken's buying for the Guild often coincided with his buying for his own home and his wife Betty introduced him to studio ceramics. Betty had been a student at Corsham College of Art and knew the new sculptural ceramicists emerging from the Central School in the 50s.
The handbuilt, sculptural ceramics of this group resonate with the Scandinavian studio glass Ken enjoyed and friendships emerged with the likes of Dan Arbeid, Gillian Lowndes and Robin Welch. Pottery and ceramics have become a central aspect of the collection, the range extending from Rosenthal porcelain to Hornsea stoneware and from Stella Crofts to Matthew Blakely. Although the collection is essentially about the new, an important exception is the group of furniture designed by Bauhaus designer Marcel Breuer for Bristol manufacturer P E Gane Ltd. When Breuer arrived in England in 1935 Gane commissioned him to design a pavilion for the 1936 Royal Agricultural Show and to remodel and furnish his home as a ‘show house.’ Like Ken, Crofton Gane had a deep interest in good contemporary European design and a passion to educate the taste of those around them.
Ken has been an astute observer of the changing nature of the design world. The collection is remarkable for its breadth, consciously mirroring the range of the Guild itself whilst nonetheless personal and idiosyncratic. The result is a collection that juxtaposes different materials and approaches, and the studio with the industrial. This relationship between the eye of the collector and that of the retailer is fundamental to the collection and makes it unique. It is this breadth that is so useful in presenting the collection to students as a resource. Clay sits alongside enamelled steel and timber, furniture beside glass and sculpture. It is so important to be able to contextualise work and by doing so develop an understanding of what ones own context might be. For us at the Collection, working with the Ceramics students has provided a great opportunity to see how the collection can be used to stimulate new creative solutions and we look forward to working with them again in the future.
Oliver Kent 2016 Trustee of the Ken Stradling Collection
Sarah Martin: In response to Gillian Lowndes and the environment of the Ken Stradling Collection
Meg Beamish: In response to a Neville Neal chair
Ynur Higham: In response to a cross section of Formalist and functional elements
Youngeun Shin: In response to Jessica Thorn
Jack McGonigle: In response to Pete Starkey
Georgina Phillips: In response to an Arne Jacobsen chair
Spencer Penn: In response to Suleyman Saba
Cameron Benn: In response to Lucie Rie
James Edwards: In response to Richard Freeman
Harriett Andrews: In response to Anna Silverton
Fllur Green: In response to Ruth Sergeant
Charlotte Manser: In response to Robin Welch
Miguel Marumba: In response to William Newland
Kendra Pauloin: In response to Kay Bojesen
Shawn Kwan: In response to Emile Galle
Rachel Bevan: In response to Matthew Chamber
Sophie Rowley: In response to David Miller
Alice Corby: In response to Catherine Gray
Joshua Duarte: In response to Betty Blandino
Jessica Dent: In response to Sam Smith
With great thanks to photographer Toril Brancher